The bill died in a House committee meeting packed with transgender youth who opposed the measure, some of whom testified before the committee.

"It feels great to know that my voice is counting," Henry Seaton, an 18-year-old student who attends Beech High School in Hendersonville, said after the vote. Seaton, who was born female but identifies as male, testified last week in a subcommittee and then spoke to committee chairman Mark White, R-Memphis, before Tuesday's meeting.

Tennessee's bill would have been the most restrictive in the nation as it would not only prohibit transgender students from using a bathroom that corresponds with the gender they identify as. The bill also would have prohibited schools from making any accommodation for transgender students.

Even if the bill had passed through the legislature, Governor Bill Haslam would have vetoed it. Signing the bill would have opened the state up to federal litigation and cost state up to $1 billion in federal funding by violating Title IX.

Unfortunately, the GOP's crusade against transgender people is far from over, The transgender students who flooded the Tennessee House deserve a great deal of praise for their courage to step out and be seen and heard.